Another retrospective blog post - this one concerning one of the several excellent Butterfly Walks led by Sarah Proud for the benefit of the volunteers at Rutland Water.
I've been to Ketton quite a few times, and it is a place I love - I just wish it was closer to home! This day we were to be blessed with good weather, after a few wet days. The meeting time of 09h00 meant a relatively early start for me as I'm around two hours away from this location.
We soon had one of our target species in sight - the wonderful Marbled White. This one was a male.
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| Marbled White (Melanargia galathea) (male) - Ketton Quarry |
We had many other sightings of this species - here are a few more images:-
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| Marbled White (Melanargia galathea) (female) - Ketton Quarry |
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| Marbled White (Melanargia galathea) (male) - Ketton Quarry |
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| Marbled White (Melanargia galathea) (pair mating - female on top) - Ketton Quarry |
There were a number of other butterfly species around, and I managed to photograph a few. Here's a selection:-
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| Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus) - Ketton Quarry |
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| Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) - Ketton quarry |
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| Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris) - Ketton Quarry |
We saw several day-flying Cinnabar moths. Here's one:-
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| Cinnabar (Tyria jacobaeae) - Ketton Quarry |
Two species of fritillary butterfly were there. The first seen was Silver-washed Fritillary, which I have never before photographed.
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| Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia) - Ketton Quarry |
More numerous, however, were the Dark Green Fritillaries.
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| Dark Green Fritillary (Argynnis aglaja) - Ketton Quarry |
Ketton Quarry is also known for its orchids. I've tried to learn a bit about orchids, but so far find that I fail miserably when it comes to identification of the Spotted/Marsh/Fragrant Orchids. Here are a few that I'll just call A, B, C or D. I suspect that they were all colour variants of Common Spotted Orchid (yes, I omitted to make a note of the leaves!), but I'd be grateful for any advice. |
| Orchid A - Ketton Quarry |
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| Orchid B - Ketton Quarry |
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| Orchid C - Ketton Quarry |
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| Orchid D - Ketton Quarry |
I do know, however, that just before we set off back to the start point we were shown Bee Orchid. |
| Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) - Ketton Quarry |
I take this opportunity to thank Sarah for yet another splendid Butterfly Walk.
Thank you for dropping by. I'm not sure what my next post will be about.
